Panda Pants
by Hawkins
Summary: Andy does another good deed, that puts Ephram in a situation that he doesn't want to be in, with a unwanted houseguest. **CHAPTER 4 UPLOADED**
1. Crutches and Guests

Panda Pants

Chapter 1

Unfortunately, everything happens for a purpose. Sometimes those purposes can't be seen until its turned to the worse, or when it's too late. But there are those other times, thought it all seems bad, it will get better.

            "A little to the left. Too far, one centimeter to the right. That was an inch!" Gigi went on her tiptoes, trying to get the banner in place, as Meghan instructed her directions. 

            "How's this, Meghan? Meghan?" Gigi turned around to see why she wasn't answering. Turning around on a seven-foot ladder isn't the smartest thing to do, especially when you have the grace of a mule. The ladder started to wobble, as her spotter wasn't watching. "Meghan!" Gigi screamed before she toppled off, pulling the banner down with her. Gravity took control of her body. She landed first on her foot, then her tailbone met with the concrete parking lot. The decorating committee snapped out of their conversations as the girl screamed out in pain.

            "Someone call a doctor!"

~*~

            "So how did this happen?" Dr. Brown asked of the teenage girl, lying on her side across the examination table.

            "We were putting up the sign for the NAHS dance when Meghan let go of the ladder and I decided to test the laws of science."

            "You don't have to be sarcastic."

            "I'm in pain, it's what I do." Andy smiled.

            "I set your ankle in place, but you're going to have to walk on crutches for a month or so, and you have to stay off of your tailbone. That broke too." Gigi groaned.

            "So I can't sit, or stand?"          

            "Oh, you can sit, it will just have to be on one of these." Dr. Brown pulled out a blown up ring. "Would you like me to call your parents to come pick you up?"

            "You can't." He looked at her puzzled.

            "Why not? Trouble at home?"

            "No, they are just in Hawaii and no way to contact them."

            "Then how did you get places?"

            "I can drive, well, I use to be able to drive." She looked down at her leg cast. "I can't even compete in next weeks Cross Country Tourney." 

            "Yes, I'd say that's out of the question. Do you have someone at home that can take care of you for awhile?"

            "That use to be me, but that's impossible too."

            "Relatives?"

            "Texas."

            "Neighbors?" Andy asked desperately.

            "I live ½ mile from civilization. My only neighbor is the family of deer in the woods." Dr. Brown was stumped. This girl was incapable of being able to take care of herself until her tailbone or ankle were healed. No one to take care of her…except….

            "I insist that you come stay with my family and I." Gigi looked at him funny.

            "You are willing to keep a complete stranger in your house?"

            "It's better than having a patient starve to death."

            "Are you sure? That I wouldn't be too much trouble?"

            "Not at all. You don't seem like the troublesome type. Just let me ask you one thing."

            "What?"

            "You aren't related to the Abbotts are you?"

            "Them? No of course not."

            "Then you are welcome to stay with me."

~*~

            "Ephram! I need your help." Andy called. Ephram walked toward the front of the house, to where the sound of his fathers voice was coming from. A loud thud and a scream of pain was more of a clue to where he was located. Ephram walked onto the porch to see his dad carrying a girl in his arms. He stood in front of the door, shocked. The girl had a cast on her leg, and a blown up ring on her head.

            "Dad?"

            "Ephram, good, come here and help me." He opened the door, and let his father pass through, still looking at the girl. "Take this off her head and set it on the couch." Ephram did as he was told. Dr. Brown set Gigi down gently, making sure that she wouldn't get hurt.

            "Dad?"

            "Yes, Ephram?" Ephram grabbed his dad's arm and dragged him out of the room.

            "Who is that?"

            "Gigi Frank, she goes to your school. I think she said she was a senior."

            "And what is she doing here then?"

            "She fell off a ladder putting a banner up, and broke her tail bone and her ankle."

            "Still, why is she here?"

            "She has no one to take care of her and she obviously can't do it herself."

            "And you felt obligated to take her in?"

            "Why not?" Ephram rolled his eyes and took a peek into the living room.

            "How long is she going to be here?"

            "Until she's healed a bit, or until her parents come home," Andy said.

            "You know nothing good can come of this."

            "And why do you say that?" Ephram glared at his father. 

            "Just another good deed done by the amazing Dr. Brown." Ephram muttered under his breath. He walked into the living room where Gigi was busy reading a book.

            "You know you shouldn't treat your father like that." She said, without looking up from 'The Count of Monte Cristo.' "I'm extremely grateful for his hospitality." Ephram glared at her.

            "You don't know how it is."

            "So I don't know how it is to have an amazing father who happens to like to help people. But I know how it feels to be alone." Gigi looked up at Ephram. "I heard you and your dad talking. I'll be out of her as soon as my parents get home from their Hawaiian vacation." Gigi closed her book and set it on the floor. "Are you going to stand up there and stare at me like I'm a bug splattered across the windshield all day?" Ephram sat down on the couch next to her.

            "So you go to my school?" He asked awkwardly.

            "Doesn't everyone? Yeah, I'm a senior." Ephram just nodded. "I've seen you around school, usually with the Abbott girl, or Wendell."

            "I have to admit, I've never seen you." Gigi shrugged. Dr. Brown came into the room, carrying two suitcases and a backpack.

            "Here's the rest of your stuff. Ephram, I need you to help Gigi if she needs anything. I have to pick up Delia."

            "Who's Delia?" Gigi asked.

            "My little sister." Ephram answered, as his dad shut the front door.

            "Oh if I knew you had a little sister I would've had your dad bring my old paly stuff."

            "She's a tom boy."

            "All tom boy's have a girlish side." Gigi smiled. "Now, Mr. Panda Pants…"

            "What did you call me?" Ephram asked confused.

            "Panda Pants? You're always wearing your Ranma ½ shirt with the panda on it. I think you need a better anime."

            "Ranma is an awesome anime."

            "Cowboy Bebop is better." A faint ringing interrupted their conversation. Gigi grabbed her backpack and pulled out a cell phone. "Excuse me for a second." Gigi turned her head away from Ephram and pressed the 'Talk' button. "Hello? You didn't hear? I fell off the ladder. Oh, I'm staying at Dr. Brown's. Yeah, Ephram's dad. What do you mean you can't run the store? Seeing as I can't drive or walk I won't be in. Everything is marked. No, the sale is next week. Only on the hard cover books. Just put the new shipments in the back room, and don't worry about restocking. Have Tri do it tomorrow. Fine, if you can't handle it close the store. You sold that for how much! Okay, okay, it's fine, just a bit less than what I paid for it but oh well. Call Tri and ask her whatever you need. She should be at play practice, but who cares if her phone starts ringing during the nose speech. Okay, toodles." She pressed 'End' on the cell phone and shoved it back into her bag.

            "What was that all about?" 

            "Oh, she was just having a momentary breakdown at the store, no worries."

            "You work at a store?"

            "No, I own a store. When my grandfather died, he left in his will a $500,000 inheritance, with instructions to fulfill my wildest dreams. So I bungee jumped and got an awesome idea, to run my own comic and gaming type store. So I bought a place, got a cool banner, and ordered stuff from a catalog. And wala, I am a successful business owner with only one accounting class."

            "Where is it?"

            "About a 30 minute drive from here. It's called Love Monkey Comics, but love monkey is in Japanese so nobody understands it, unless, of course, they can read Japanese." Ephram rolled his eyes.

            "You actually own a store, nobody co-owns it with you?"

            "Nope, just by my wicked self. I have 3 workers, Tri the only one besides me that knows everything that goes on, Tara, which is the girl I just talked to, and another girl, who we all call Trekki. It's a fun environment." Gigi was going to go on, but the front door opened.

            "Hello." Gigi greeted, smiling. Delia looked at the teen, before whispering to her father, "Who is that?"

            "Delia, meet Gigi Frank. She's going to be staying with us until her ankle is better." Andy turned to Gigi. "You'll have to stay in the living room, since we don't have a guest bedroom. There isn't a whole lot of privacy though."

            "Privacy? What's that?" Gigi grinned. "It will be alright."

~*~

A:N// That's it for the first chapter. Ranma ½ and Cowboy Bebop don't belong to me, Ephram's shirt belongs to the costume crew, and the nose speech belongs to Edmond Rostand. I hope you enjoy this so far. Please review. I accept flames. 


	2. Frosted Flakes and Paint Thinner

Panda Pants

Chapter 2

"Good morning Ephram." Andy said brightly as his son walked into the kitchen groggily. Ephram didn't say anything as he sat on the stool and poured himself some breakfast. Andy waited for a response, but gave up when Ephram started chewing the Frosted Flakes.

"Gigi asked me if you could pick up her homework for her from one of her friends."

"She has friends? Why isn't she staying with one of them then?" 

"Because I invited her here." Andy said quietly, hoping that Gigi wasn't listening to their conversation. "Do you want a ride to school, Ephram?"

"No. I'll ride my bike." He said stubbornly, pushing the stool back and walking into the living room.

"G'morning." Gigi greeted, barely awake. "How are you?"

"Fine." Ephram picked up his bag and through it over his shoulder.

"Oh…so I'm guessing your dad already asked you about getting my stuff."

"Yes he did." He said with a sarcastic tone before storming to the front door and slamming it closed behind him. Gigi just stared after him.

"And I thought I was a moody person in the morning." She said under her breath.

~*~

"Good Mornin' Doctor Brown." Edna greeted when he walked into the office. 

"Hello." He smiled setting his briefcase onto her desk. "Edna, I might have to check on Gigi a couple times today, make sure she's going well."

"Oh, you mean Franky?"

"I guess so. Is that what people call her?"

"Yup, Franky, Ditz, Gevige." She counted off on her fingers. "Tons of stuff."

"Is she popular?"

"Depends on how you're looking at it. If you mean popular as the clique in school, then no, she's one of the outcast artist types. But if you mean popular as everyone knows her then of course. She's in the newspaper every other week for something, part of the Cross Country team, always doing some community service project, or protesting about something, and she's president of the school's art club." Edna looked down at her hands and shook her head. "Sad thing is, her parents don't seem very proud of her. Most of the time it's 'You could've done better.' They expect too much of the poor girl. Last year was a big downfall for her with the controversy her mural brought."

"What happened there?"

"It featured witchcraft in it, so the school board took paint thinner to it and let another student cover it up with some school spirit thing."

"That's terrible. What was so bad about it?"

"She painted some scene from those Lord of the Rings books, with the Balrog. They thought it looked too much like a devil. And there was some wizard casting a spell. It was magnificent, but there weren't enough supporters of it, just her friends and the art club wanted it to stay. Not many adults cared for it, so the school board didn't care."

~*~

            Ephram walked to his locker and opened it up. Usually Amy was there standing next to it, talking about something that he really didn't care about, but now that Colin was back, she was scarce and wanted to pretend she didn't know him. 

            "Ephram! Ephram!" He turned his head to see a girl running down the hall, waving at him. He stood still, too shocked to say or do anything. She came up to him and took a deep breath. 

            "You're Ephram Brown, right?" She asked.

            "Yeah…why?"

            "Thank god! When Franky told me to find a purple haired punk, I wanted to slap her. She's one of the most un-talkative people I've ever known." He looked at her confused. "Oh, I'm Tara. Sorry, I usually forget to introduce myself to people." She held her hand out grinning. "Franky called me this morning and asked if I could bring something for her, to give to you. But I can't give it to you know because it's in my locker, and I highly doubt you'd like to carry it around with you all day." She stopped talking and took a breath. "I have to go now though and meet Tri and Trekki. You have lunch the same period as us to just come over and I'll give it to you then. Nice to meet you Ephram and I'll see you later." She shook his hand again and took off walked away, before he could say anything.

            "Okay then…" He said, closing his locker and heading to his first period class.

~*~*~*~

 AN:// There we go. The second chapter is now done. Thanks for the reviews, and to the girl that invited me onto her website! THANKS! I'll update soon, because I have it already written into my notebook. Now only if I could find that notebook.  I own Tri, Trekki, Gigi and Tara, I wish I owned Gregory Smith but sadly his parents have the rights to him. WB owns Everwood, and Tolkien owns Lord of the Rings. Please review and I'll get the next chapter out as soon as possible.


	3. Lemonade and Rubix Cubes

Ephram looked around the lunchroom for the crazy girl that bombarded him this morning. He never really realized how many people they stuffed in there at once, and it still seemed 'roomy'. He looked towards the corner of the room and saw Tara standing up, waving at him.  He just shook his head, hoping that this wouldn't be a disaster.

"Hi Ephram." Ephram pulled a chair out and looked at the others sitting at the table. There were three others besides Tara, two girls and one boy. Both girls were reading worn copies of books. The blonde was reading a Tolkien book while the brunette was absorbed in Julius Caesar, by Shakespeare. The only male was fiddling with a Rubix cube while listening to his headphones.

"Guys, this is Ephram." Tara announced, taking her seat and pushing aside her textbooks. The two girls looked up and smiled, while the boy just nodded, still playing with the cube. "Ephram, this is the guys. That's Tri with Shakespeare," the brunette nodded and went back to reading her book, "Trekki is the one reading Tolkien," she smiled again and put her book down, "and Brent who isn't paying attention." Tara said, raising her voice at the end of the sentence. Tri nudged him in the ribs with her elbow. He pulled the headphones off and looked at his friend.

            "What was that for?" He asked. Tri just shook her head, and stuck her hand out to Ephram. "It's nice meeting you, Ephram." He shook her hand, before turning to Tara.  

            "So, you said you needed to give me something for Gigi?"

            "Yeah, here." She pulled the empty chair out next to her and pointed to a stack of magazines up.

            "Here's all 30 of them." The group just smirked as Ephram looked at them with a confused expression.

            "Those are the sales catalogs for Love Monkey." Tri informed him, as she closed her book. "It's a joke among us with who has to carry them. She usually sticks me with them, but it changes to whoever is on her bad side at the time."

            "And Tri is usually always on her bad side." Trekki mocked, as Tri stuck her tongue out at her.

            "Are you entirely confused?" Brent asked Ephram, twisting the Rubix cube again.

            "Yes I am."

            "Don't worry. It will become a common feeling after a while with these 3, four when Gigi is back on her feet." With one final twist, Brent gave a shout of joy.

            "I finally beat this thing." He threw the cube in the air then shoved it under the girls' noses. "And you said it was impossible." Tri grabbed the cube and inspected it.

            "You switched two of these stickers." She threw the cube at Brent and smacked him in the shoulder. Ephram just smirked watching the childish antics of the upperclassmen, as they pushed each other repeatedly.

            "Ephram, I'll help you out with those magazines if you want. I don't have anything going on tonight, so I can drive you home. I have to give something to Gigi anyway." Tri then turned to the others at the table. "Can you believe she called me at 5:30 this morning?"

            "Another thing you'll notice is that the girls change the subject faster than the redlight on Main Street." Brent whispered under Tri's complaining. Ephram smirked and tried to follow the girls conversation, which was jumping drastically from early mornings, to homework, to something gooey found in Gigi's locker. Ephram looked back at Brent, who was changing CD's in his Walkman. 

            "So what are you listening to?" He asked. 

            "Oh, a mixture of stuff. Beatles, Badlees, Dashboard Confessional, Aerosmith. I like different kinds of music." Brent answered, pulling his headphones down off his ears. "Do you burn your own CDs?"

            "Yeah, basically my entire collection is from downloading."

            "Best way to go. Do you listen to punk?" 

            "Yeah." He answered, poking at the neglected food on his plate. 

Trekki pushed a box of Nilla wafers across the table at him. "Don't trust the cafeteria food. Last year there was an outbreak of food poisoning." Ephram looked down at the tray in front of him and his stomach churned. 

"We haven't eaten school food since." Brent said, taking an apple out of his lunch bag. He handed it to Ephram, who just pushed his plate away from him.

"Mainly because we were the kids that got it." Tara said, laughing.

"I haven't made that many sacrifices to the porcelain god in one day my entire life." Trekki commented. Tri choked on the lemonade she was drinking, and covered her nose and mouth with her hands, so she wouldn't spit, or snort it across the table. 

"I bet that stings." Ephram commented, holding back a smile with all the effort he could muster. Tri just nodded, with her eyes brimming with tears. Once she calmed down long enough to swallow, she spoke up, with a strangled voice. "Welcome to the gang, Ephram."

 The period bell rang loudly, dampening the joys and laughter of most of the students. As the five of them started cleaning up their table, Tri gave Ephram directions on where to meet her.

"My car is the only yellow Grand Am in the parking lot. I don't know if your bike will fit in the trunk though."

"I can take it with me." Brent offered. "The back seat in my car can be laid down, so it should fit."

"Thanks." Ephram said, shifting his bag on his shoulder. "I'll just get it from you tomorrow then."

At two-thirty, Ephram and Tri left the school parking lot.

"So are you liking Everwood so far?" Tri asked.

"Not really. New York was much better."  
"I can imagine. So many lights, millions of people. It's my dream place."  
"I think it's everyone's dream place." Ephram said, looking out the car window.  
"Except of course the people that choose to live in Hicksville USA." 

Tri stopped at the intersection. "I'm not saying this is Hicksville, I just don't like small towns." She turned left onto another road. "I want to live on Broadway, or in Hollywood. Whatever will get my acting career the jump it needs. I've even seriously thought about moving to Britain to get a role in the Harry Potter movies, and to mingle with the hot Scottish guys." Tri grinned goofily at Ephram. "Nothing better than a fine man in a kilt." 

Ephram looked at her puzzled. "Why would you want to see a guy in a skirt?"  
"Don't say that to the others, they may just put one on you themselves. You would look pretty hot in one." Shaking his head, Ephram diverted his glance away from Tri, who was still grinning.  
"Is this your street or the next?"  
"The next."  
"Okay." Tri kept driving. "Have you ever been to a Renaissance Faire?"  
"A what?" She looked at him shocked, as he was clueless about her question.

"The Renaissance Faire, a place to celebrate and experience the Shakespearean and Elizabethan era. You've never heard of them?" Tri turned onto the next street.

"No, I'm not into that kind of stuff."

"Just you wait, there's one in Larkspur. Hang out with us long enough and you'll be reciting Shakespeare, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings where ever you go. Which house is yours?"

"That one." She pulled up in front of the house he pointed to and whistled through her teeth. "No wonder your dad works for free." After pulling the key out of the ignition, she opened the car door and walked to the back of the car. "Here, take fifteen of them." Ephram grabbed half of the sales catalogs and started towards the house.

"GAH!!!!!  HUMAN BEING!"  Gigi screamed when Ephram walked into the house.  He jumped and almost ran back outside.

"You're still here?" He asked, setting the magazines down onto a chair.

"Yes, I'm still here.  I can't really move much.  I've been having to hold my bladder all day, hand me the crutches over there."  Gigi pointed across the room.

"Why are they over there?" Ephram asked when he went to fetch them.

"Your father caught me trying to steal candy from your pantry.  So he turned me back over to the couch and handed me a bag of M&M's.  He said I couldn't move.  He left before I could ask what I was supposed to do when I needed to pee."  Ephram snorted and handed the crutches to the older girl.  She pushed herself off the couch and clumsily made her way to the bathroom.  Ephram just shook his head in disbelief. 

Tri stepped into after Gigi had already left the room.

"Where's Franky?"

"Bathroom."

"Oh…" She put the magazines on top of the others and looked around the room. Her eyes landed on the near empty bag of candy next to the couch. "Oh no, you gave her M&M's?"

"My dad did, why?"

"Oh nothing. She just recites about every commercial known to man after eating them. She watches too much television." Tri stuffed her hands into her pockets and looked around the other rooms on the first floor. 

"What are you doing here?" Gigi came hobbling back into the room.

"I brought the things you requested this morning. You know, the things you couldn't wait until 6:30 for?" Tri opened up her backpack and pulled a DVD player out, and five DVD's. Gigi rubbed her hands together, gleefully.

"If you hook that up for me Ephram, I'll show you some real anime."

~*~*~*~

AN:// YAY! I finally got around to typing this up. You don't know how hard that was, because half of this was missing, and the other half was in 5 different notebooks. I'm getting back into the mood of writing. So hopefully, I'll get the next chapter out faster than this one took. Please review, they are greatly appreciated.


	4. Confusion and Cooking

Panda Pants 4  
  
AN:// I would like to take this time and say that the rest of these chapters aren't going to be going along with the show's episodes. When I started writing this story was when Colin came out of his coma. So, if my plot changes quite a bit, and doesn't really follow what had happened in the previous season, I'm sorry, it's hard writing fanfics for television shows, which all of you probably already know, because in a weeks span, what you think is going to happen may change drastically.  
  
Andy walked into the house, hearing gunshots, screams, and jazz music coming from the living room. He sat his leather briefcase down in the hallway, before inspecting what was going on. In the living room, Ephram and Gigi were sitting on the couch with a bowl of popcorn between them, while another girl sat on the floor with papers spread out in front of her. All three too absorbed in the television to notice Andy's entrance.  
"What in the world are you watching?" Andy asked, as someone was shot, after speaking in Japanese. Ephram turned his head slightly away from the TV and looked at his dad.  
"It's called Cowboy Bebop."  
"Why are they speaking Chinese?" Andy asked, eyeing the English subtitles.  
"It's Japanese. It's an anime, from Japan." Ephram answered slowly, hoping to make his father sound like an idiot.  
"It doesn't come in English?"  
"Sure it does," Gigi answered, pressing the pause button on the remote, "reading subtitles is just more fun." Tri looked away from the paused TV to Andy. She stood up, taking care not to step on her papers, and walked over to him.  
"Hi, I'm a friend of Gigi's. She asked me to bring some of her stuff over for her. My name is Tri Valentine." She greeted, sticking her hand out to shake Andy's.  
"Tri? Is that your real name?"  
"No, it's Trinculo, but Tri is easier to say, and doesn't make it obvious that my parents wanted a boy."  
"Oh." Andy pretended to know what she was talking about, but was actually getting more confused with every word she said. She turned back to the couch and started picking up all of the papers she had on the floor.  
"Everything looks okay Franky. I'll get the payroll done tonight at the store." Stuffing the papers back into her bag, she turned back to Andy. "It was nice meeting you, Doctor Brown. I'll see you tomorrow, Ephram." Andy opened the door for Tri, and closed it behind her.  
"How did you get home, Ephram? Your bike isn't outside."  
"Tri brought me home. Brent has my bike." He answered, watching the un-paused television again.  
"Who's Brent?"  
"A friend of Gigi's, Tri's, and Tara's."  
"You forgot Trekki." Gigi informed him, taking a handful of popcorn out of the ball.  
"Who are Tara and Trekki?" Andy asked, his brain trying to comprehend all of the names.  
"They're friends of Gigi's too. I don't know Trekki's real name." Ephram told his dad, still not looking at him.  
"Not many people do." Gigi said, quite pleased that the conversation was perplexing Andy.  
"I think I need some aspirin." Andy announced, rubbing his temples with his index and middle fingers.  
"Don't worry, Mr. Brown that happens quite a lot around us." Gigi called after him, as he climbed the stairs to the bathroom. After his dad was out of earshot, Ephram whispered to Gigi. "That was the most hilarious thing that's happened in this house."  
"Glad to help." She whispered back, throwing a piece of popcorn at his head.  
  
Gigi hobbled into the kitchen on her crutches, slowly. Leaning against the counter, she looked around. Ephram had half of his body in the refrigerator, while Delia was sitting at the counter doing her homework. Ephram emerged with his arms full of vegetables.  
"You cook?" Gigi asked looking at him, impressed.  
"Yes I do. You wouldn't want to eat my dad's cooking. It's pretty awful, and usually black and crispy. He's one of those people whose specialty is Blackened Chicken." Ephram placed the vegetables in the sink, before helping Gigi get on one of the stools, with her blow up tube.  
"And what's your specialty?"  
"Take-out." Ephram answered, mockingly. "Actually, I can cook pretty much anything I have a recipe for. It's not that hard to follow directions."  
"So, what are you making?" Gigi asked, eyeing the vegetables and Ephram. Ephram looked at the vegetables too. There were three different kinds of peppers, tomatoes, and unions.  
"Do you like chicken fajitas?"  
"I love Mexican food. Anything you want help with?" Gigi smiled at Ephram.  
"Yeah, you can cut the chicken into strips." He went back to the refrigerator, and pulled a package of chicken breasts out of the meat drawer. He handed that to Gigi.  
"Can you be trusted knife?" He asked, slightly grinning.  
"Sure I can, unless you get on my nerves. Kidding!" Gigi opened the package of chicken, before Ephram handed her a knife.  
"Wait, you have to wash your hands first."  
"Don't you like germs?"  
"I do, just not yours." Ephram smirked. "You're not the only one that can kid." Ephram handed her a bottle of No-Water, antibacterial soap, before washing the peppers.  
"Is there anything I can do?" Delia asked, clearing her homework off the counter.  
"Set the table?" Ephram asked, pulling four plates out of the cabinet. Delia took the plates, and went into the dining room with them.  
"Where did your dad go anyway?"  
"I don't know. I think back to his office. Usually he brings Delia home, and leaves again. You would think with him having a patient here, it would be different."  
"You still don't want me here, do you?"  
"Actually, I don't really know anymore. You aren't as bad as I thought you'd be."  
"Aw, I'm flattered. Don't worry, I thought you were going to be more of a pain in the butt than I already have." Gigi said, making a joke out of her tailbone. Ephram just smiled and shook his head.  
"You have one strange sense of humor."  
"Why thank you." Ephram guffawed. He started cutting the peppers, laughing every now and then when he looked up at Gigi and saw her still smiling.  
  
Andy walked into the house, his senses immediately overcome by the smell of peppers, the sound of laughter, and the sight of a set table.  
"You kids have been busy." He said, amazed. He lifted the cover off the skillet and smelled the chicken and peppers. "What are you making?"  
"Chicken fajitas. The tortillas are in the microwave, the cheese is in the bowl in the fridge, and all that still needs to be done is putting everything on the table." Ephram said stirring the chicken around to make sure it didn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Turning off the stove, he carefully spooned the chicken and peppers into a large bowl. The microwave beeped, signaling the tortillas were all heated up. "Delia, can you get the cheese and salsa out? Then we can eat." He sat the bowl on the table, before pulling a chair out for Gigi. Andy sat down, gleefully.  
"I'm very proud of you Ephram, taking responsibility and charge, with no fight or fuss." Ephram turned away from his father, avoiding his approving glance. It's a very strange thing to accept, from a father, who has forever been distant and disapproving, to suddenly accept, approve, and enjoy something you've done. Especially after what has happened to this family, and town. It's hard to understand why everything suddenly happens at once, but you have to take the good with the bad, or there would be no relief. 


End file.
